subscribe

Pages

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Did you know that on this day in 1862, the Mexican army enjoyed an unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla?* Yep. It was such an auspicious occasion that they named that fateful 5th of May... [consulting clipboard] the...er...5th of May.

Wait - is that right? [searching through papers]

Oh, but they named it in Spanish - I see. That way, instead of sounding silly, it sounds all "exotic-like" to us Gringos.

Anyhoo, these days we Americans have put our own spin on Cinco de Mayo:

Namely, we consume copious amounts of alcohol at extended happy hours across the country. Though to be fair, some of us will be wearing sombreros at the time.

"Hey Jo, what'd you find down at the bakery?"

"Meh. Just a couple of Mexican clowns waving flags."

"What?!?""Oh."

(Anyone else think those "music notes" look like a pack of sky-diving sixes?)

I was going to suggest that something like a taco cake might be more appropriate today, but then I realized that's stereotyping. So instead, how about this?

Display it in a sink**, and all your Spanish-speaking friends will think you're hilarious. Or stupid. But then, they probably already think you're one of those anyway, so what have you got to lose?

Mayo in cake batter is just a substitute for eggs if you're out of 'em (you can also use a little soy protein powder with water). I was wondering how y'all would honor the day. Me? I'm gonna cook up some yummy Mexican (meh ee con) vittles and down a few bottles of Negra Modelo.

Happy Five de Mayo... LMAO... That's really making the extra effort. (shaking head)Yes people we've got it... 4th of July... moving on. Can only hope there will be a Happy Cuatro of July cake for the occasion.

Love the Hellman's cake!By the way, I work with a lot of Mexicans in manufacturing, and NONE of them have ever celebrated Cinco de Mayo. They think we are stupid gringos for taking a minor Mexican holiday and thinking we're celebrating something big with them. Oh well, any excuse for a margarita will do.

I know its been said before, but I can't help pointing out that the actual name of the 4th of July is Independence Day. We're just lazy.

Also, I bet our Mexican neighbors really appreciate the lengths we go to to celebrate their special day. Giving clowns Mexican flags? Drinking while wearing sombreros? If that doesn't show respect, I don't know what does.

A friend of mine sends out this story every year, and I thought you'd appreciate it. Please send all virtual roses and rotten tomatoes to him. :D

--------------------

We all know the story of the Titanic: giant boat, set sail for New York from England. She sank in a horrible tragedy in the middle of nowhere 15 April 1912.

Most people don't know the whole story however.

Early in 1912 Hellmann's Mayonnaise (an English company) revolutionized the condiment world by successfully preserving mayo in jars. The Titanic was carrying over ten thousand jars of Hellmann's mayo in her hold when she went down.

The Titanic's second port of call was to be Cozumel, Mexico. This was also the ultimate destination for the Hellmann's in her giant iron belly. It seems that mayo had never before been commercially available in Mexico and the populace was just going nuts over the stuff. When news hit Mexico of the Titanic's sinking in early May the nation went into mourning for the loss. The government of Mexico declared a national day of mourning, in fact, to be celebrated every year in remembrance of the event: Cinco de Mayo.

Naming it Cinco de Mayo isn't any sillier than 'Fourth of July' is it? Especially since nothing important actually happened on July 4th. Voted on July 2nd, signed on August 2nd. July 4th? Um, date of printing. Wow.

The 4th of July, as many have already said, is not the name of the holiday. The official name is Independence Day but people like nicknames so 4th of July came about. I'm hoping that the people trying to be snarky don't live in America (like myself), otherwise, you just made yourself look a bit...silly.

Anyway, I'm working at a Mexican restaurant today. I bet there will be drunk "Ugly Americans" galore. But they won't look any worse than the clown morgue that is cake #2.

We all know the story of the Titanic: giant boat, set sail for New York from England. She sank in a horrible tragedy in the middle of nowhere 15 April 1912.

Most people don't know the whole story however.

Early in 1912 Hellmann's Mayonnaise (an English company) revolutionized the condiment world by successfully preserving mayo in jars. The Titanic was carrying over ten thousand jars of Hellmann's mayo in her hold when she went down.

The Titanic's second port of call was to be Cozumel, Mexico. This was also the ultimate destination for the Hellmann's in her giant iron belly. It seems that mayo had never before been commercially available in Mexico and the populace was just going nuts over the stuff. When news hit Mexico of the Titanic's sinking in early May the nation went into mourning for the loss. The government of Mexico declared a national day of mourning, in fact, to be celebrated every year in remembrance of the event: Cinco de Mayo.

After reading the comments over the last few days, and particularly after the "Epcot" debacle, I can only conclude that Cake Wrecks has become a victim of its own success and now attracts a number of "outsiders" who just don't GET IT!

Boy, I wish someone would make a point about how Independence Day is often referred to as "4 Of July". Because no one has done that. I feel this need to read 20 different "OMG Americans say Fourth of July!" comments and you people just aren't helping.

So we English-speaking folk look at that 2nd cake and read "Happy five de Mayo" but a Spanish-speaking person would look at it and read "Happy cinco de Mayo" so...it looks funny, but it's kinda not that funny, really. Call me a party-pooper.

The 5 on the cake works--it just forgot one key element. It needs a superscript circle next to it. Spanish speakers don't always write out fifth anymore than English speakers do. They abbreviate it 5 superscript o--looks like five degrees.

Mexican Independence (and Independence Day for most or all of Central America) is September 15th.

I need to correct my own comment after a September 16th date was posted. The 16th is the official Mexican Independence Day, with the 15th being the day for other portions of Central America. The official declaration was made in Mexico on the 15th but the army didn't support it until the next day. Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras declared their independence on the 15th: Guatemala at least celebrates it on that day.

I had to enlarge the drunk cake to see that those are, in fact, champagne bottles and not olives. My first thought was, "Yeah....you'd have to be pretty drunk to eat a cake with olives on it" followed closely by the thought of what other odd surprises might be lurking UNDER the icing. That cake also has a piece of paper beside it with the date 12/21/2008, so it might be some holiday that we have been neglecting to celebrate all these years. Also...on the note beside the cake it looks like they repeatedly wrote "How I met" and then scratched it out. (Or is it "How I wet?")

way to completely ignore the fact that spanish is spoken by over 30 million people at home in this country, and that 15% of this "us" you mention are latinos, who don't think the concept of a mexican holiday — or the spanish language — is as weird and wacky as you do. as someone who lives in a state with almost as many latinos as gringos, i'm pretty shocked to learn that this is how the rest of the country views people, languages, and holidays that aren't lily-white.

OMG... the mayo cake is awesome! I totally would stick that sucker in a sink and call it sinko de mayo.... except I'm not having a party and it's already 3:00... no time. Maybe I'll remember for next year. Probably not.

I would also like to know why there is a jar of mayonaise cake (aside from that you can put it in the sink and call it a Sink-o de Mayo cake). It's one of those cakes that is actually reasonably well executed, but you still wonder why anyone would want that. I demand more investigative journalism from Cake Wrecks!

As a Mexican(American) with family in and from Puebla, I suggest all those erroneously celebrating Mexico's Independence day today relinquish all alcoholic beverages to me. I will dispose of them in proper fashion.It is rather strange that we celebrate someone else's Independence day at all. I still don't think there's a need to get in a such a tizzy about technicality. Bottoms up!

For me what's funniest is that in Mexico Cinco de Mayo is such a non-holiday. I mean, we don't celebrate it at all!! For us Mexicans in Mexico te Cinco de Mayo celebration with parades and booze and everything is as exotic as can be to your average gringo.

sink o' de mayo...I almost fell out of the chair!Yesterday was my twin daughter's second birthday...but we went to the Mexican restaurant the night before to avoid the "american celebration" of cinco de mayo. But we actually had a VERY CUTE cupcake puppy cake...you know the long haired white ones...it was super cute, the only reason I bought it was because I was in shock it was actually cute and so I could take a picture of it.

I'm going to assume the comment about Cinco de Mayo/Fifth of May wasn't meant to sound racist or otherwise hurtful.

The school I work at had a Cinco de Mayo celebration. I'm going to see what I can get them to do come September 16th, since we have some students from Mexican families. Heck, we have students from almost every country in Central America, maybe it should be like a 2 or 3-day celebration.

Anyone who is complaining that Jen is making a racist statement with her comment about Gringos (if you can't see the humor and understand that she's making fun of the "gringos" and not the holiday or Mexicans, etc.) really needs to lighten up or stop reading her blog. If you guys annoy her again she may stop posting altogether and I need my "Cake Wrecks' fix every day.

those of you talking about the "drunk day" cake. I'm the yenni that sent that in...I'm shocked to see it actually used XD

the green things are champagne bottles, and the list next to the cake was actually my boyfriend's list of tv shows he had missed....the date was a random piece of paper..that photo was taken around January 12th...my 21st b-day

Search This Blog

Wreck the Halls

NEW! Pre-Order Today!

Buy the Book

Buy the NYT Bestseller

What's a Wreck?

What's a Wreck?

A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.

order

Where's the book?

We don’t have any copies of Cake Wrecks for sale here, autographed or otherwise. We decided the shipping and handling costs would be too high to make it worth your while. So instead, buy your copies locally or online and then order personalized bookplates: it’s cheaper, easier, and I think even looks a bit nicer.

Ordering Info

Payments must be made through Paypal, which accepts all major credit cards. Sorry, but that means no checks or MOs or barter-based chickens.

We ship everything first class USPS, and will do our best to have your package in the mail within 2 days of your order.